Excessive noise has always been a barrier to learning and schools are a noisy place because of all the students who attend. How do we get around this? The answer to this question may have been discovered with a simple solution found in technology.
Technology in the classroom has come a long way and by that I mean the use of an audio microphone that the teacher uses to send her voice around the classroom so that the children can hear her better. It has been nicknamed the ‘Madonna Mic’ because it looks similar to the one Madonna wears; this one is worn around the neck. This piece of equipment diminishes background noise and makes the teachers voice clearer and is good in rooms with poor acoustics. This technology will be most beneficial for a teacher because they no longer have to raise their voices and or shout to be heard.
The original study involved 600 students and it would seem that the results were exceptionally encouraging and showed the children responding so very well to this new innovation that it is set to be used in other schools. When playing games like alphabet bingo, the children are responding much faster and they seem to be more engaged with their learning. The primary reason for this is that they can hear what is being said to them. As a result, this is very pleasing but it would appear that the overall behavior of the children involved in these studies has improved too. The teachers are finding that the children are more aware of what they have said to them and there would seem to be less disruption because of this. No repeating what they have just said because someone did not hear and they have found it much easier to teach. It has grabbed the attention of other schools that have had problems because of their location such as being near an airport or under a flight path.
This could trigger a change in many primary schools where getting the attention of the children is paramount. This technology has been used in many universities and other such learning establishments but now we can see that it could have an added impact on the children in our junior schools. This could be one of the most useful tools that a teacher could have. It seems a piece of equipment such as this could improve the lives students and teachers by taking the stress out of trying to hear and listen to what the teacher is saying over the usual classroom noise.
The time taken to make the children quieter should no longer pose such a big problem for the teacher. Having helped out in the classroom and at school whenever I could, I was surprised at the many times the teacher was waiting for the children to be quiet so that she could speak. It was very time consuming and that time that was wasted. With a microphone such as this one, this would not be such a problem.
